Electromagnetic propelling system.



n assz QR 36M498 "Y v M" 11.1mm. I ELECTROMAGNETIC PBOPELLING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 28, 1907. 964,498.

Patented July 19, 1910.

2 BHBBTB-IHBET 1.

Rexford Deap.

R. DEAN.

ELECTROMAGNETIC PBOPELLING SYSTEM.

APPLIOATIOH FILED IA]. 98, 1907. 9 4,49 Patented July 19, 1910.

I HEIGHTS-SHEET 2.

Reatford Dear RAFTSMA S PATENT OFFICE.

BEXFORD DEAN, 0F FINDLAY, OHIO.

ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPIELLING SYSTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 19, 1910.

Application filed January 28, 1907. Serial No. 354,546.

To all whom "it may concern:

Be it known that I, Rnxronn DEAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Findlay, in the county of Hancock and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements In an Electromagnetic Propelling System, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an electro-magnetic propelling system.

The electric systems now in use are very expensive. This is due to the fact that in employing such systems it is necessary to build a power house and a long copper conductor along the track. It has been previously suggested to place a motor on the vehicle, such or instance as a steam engine, a gas engine or an electric motor run by a. storage battery, but in these cases the motor has been geared to the vehicle wheels. When the motor is geared to the vehicle wheels, not-only is a great deal of energy lost, due to the wheels slipping on the rails, but the speed of the vehicle is limited to the driving force of the motor, the vehicle not being able to travel at a greater speed, when the vehicle moves dpfwn a hill, unless the motive power is shut o It is an object of this invention to provide a system in which the motive power is carried by the vehicle and operates in such a manner that the speed of the vehicle is not limited by the driving force of the motor.

Other and further objects will appear in the following description and will be more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the bottom portion of a vehicle, the electric circuits being shown diagrammatically, and the road bed being shown in section. Fig. 2 shows the magnets and the controller in perspective and the circuits diagrammatically. Fig. 3 is a cross section of the controller. Fig. 4 is a development of the controller. Fig. 5 is a development of the controller for the rotary member. Fig. 6 is a plan View of the railroad bed.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, A indicates the railroad bed comprising the rails 1 and cross ties 2. Extending transversely of the bed between the rails are soft metal bars 3 which are to act as armatures as will be hereinafter pointed out.

These bars are about as thick as the rails, are high and their upper surfaces lie approximately in the plane of the upper sur face of the rails. The ends of the bars are secured to the rails and act to prevent the spreading of the latter. The spaces between the bars may be filled in any suitable manner with paving or the like so that the road bed may be practically smooth and can bear the trafiic of city streets.

The vehicle B may be of any suitable form, but its wheels 4 must be able to turn freely. Suspended beneath the vehicle is a parallel series of elongated, stationary transverse electro magnets 5 of which there may be any suitable number. These magnets are spaced apart a distance slightly greater than the distance between the armatures 3 on the road bed.

The magnets are successively energized by a means to be hereinafter described and the energization of each magnet takes place when the magnet is slightly past the middle of the space between two armatures 3. This causes an attraction between the magnet and the armature in advance of it, and, as the armature is carried by a stationary road bed and the magnet by a movable vehicle, the vehicle moves to carry the magnet to the armature. When the center of a magnet reaches the center of an armature, the magnet is deenergized and remains deener ized until the magnet has passed the midd e of the next space between the magnets. It will be noted that at no time is there a repulsion between the magnets and the armatures, and thus no tendency to lift the car from the tracks. This is a great advantage as a greater speed is thereby secured, the full weight of the car being thrown in the direction of the movement of the vehicle.

To successively energize the magnets there is provided on the car a suitable source of electric energy such, for instance, as storage batteries 6. Leading from the batteries is a conductor 7 which connects with a brush 8 bearing on an annular contact 9 on a controller shaft 10. This contact 9 is electrically connected to the shaft 10 which also forms part of the electric circuit. The controller is formed of a non-conducting body 11 surrounding the controlling shaft 10. This body has a plurality of annular series of peripheral contacts, 12, 12, 13, 13, 14,

14, 15, 15', 16, 16', 17, 17', arranged in pairs and being twice the number of propelling magnets 5 on the car.

In each series the contacts are elongated and spaced apart a distance slightly greater than the length of the contacts. All of the contacts of all the series are connected electrically to the shaft 10 and thus to the batteries 6. The shaft 10 is adapted to be provided with a crank or lever whereby the position of the drum l1 and consequently the magnets 23 may be readily controlled by the conductor.

The contacts of each series of contacts are arranged spirally around the surface of the cylindrical controller body 11 and the individual contacts of the two series are alternated in positions so that by throwing the series of brushes in one direction, the contacts of one series will come successively into play in energizing the magnets and by throwing the series of switches in the other direction, the other series of contacts will come into play. Inasmuch as the contacts are brought beneath the brushes by the rotary movement of the cylinder 11 and this rotary movement is developed by the rotation of the electro-magnetic rotary member 23, hereinafter described, which in turn is caused to rotate by the armatures 3 passing beneath it as the car progresses, it follows that the contact plates on the cylindrical controller are brought beneath the brushes at periods of time bearing a definite relation to the arrival of the electro-magncts 5 in attractive relation to the armatures 3. If the rotary adjustment or position of the cylinder 11 be so determined that the contact 12 is beneath its brush at the time when the rear magnet 5 is in the relative position shown in Fig. 1, the car will obviously move to the left. If the parts be so related that the contact 12 will be beneath its brush at the time when the magnet controlled thereby is on the left hand side of and in attractive relation to a track armature, it follows that the car will move to the right. If the magnets are not so spaced as to, at all times, present at least one magnet in proper attractive relation and position to develop rearward movement, it is obviously merely a matter of first developing a slight forward movement and then reversing the switch.

Each series of contacts has a brush 18 which is electrically connected to one of the switch contacts 19. For each pair of contacts 19 there is provided a switch blade 20 which is adapted to be thrown into connection with either contact 19 of a pair. All these switches 20 are connected together, as for instance by a rod 21, so that the switches of all magnets may be shifted simultaneously to reverse the direction of movement of the vehicle. From the switches 20, conductors 21, 21 21, 21 21 21 lead to the coils of the several magnets, the said coils being branched from the conductor 22 forming the return to source of energy 6.

T he circuit controller may be rotated by any suitable means, but it is preferred to employ the means herein shown, said means also forming part of my invention. This means comprises a member rotating in the direction of rotation of'the wheels of the vehicle, geared to the shaft of the controller and carrying a plurality of radial and elongated magnets 23, the magnets corresponding in number to the number of contacts in each series on the controller, three having been found to be a good number as then no dead center is formed.

The rotary member is positioned below the vehicle so that it may be turned by the armatures 3, the magnets 23 being successively energized and deenergized. For this purpose there is secured to the shaft 21 of the rotating member, a COlllll'lIltfllOl' or controller. The controller comprises a nonconducting body surrounding the shaft 2-l and carrying a ring contact 26 and two series of contacts 27 and 28. The ring contact 26 is electrically connected to a conductor 29 which is common to the coils of all the magnets 23. The ring is also connected by brush 24 with a conductor 30 which is branched from the conductor 7. The contacts 27 are each connected to one of the coils of the elcctro-magnets 23, said contacts 27 being arranged with very small spaces between them and each causing the energization of its magnet when the magnet ap proximately reaches a horizontal position and is disposed in the direction in which the vehicle is moving. The magnet remains energized until it reaches its lower vertical position when it is deenergized and the succeeding magnet is energized. A brush 31 travels 011 contacts 27 and is connected by a conductor 32 with a. switch contact 33.

The contacts 28, like the contacts 27 are connected to the several coils of the rotating member, but are arranged in staggered relation to the contacts 27 so that when employed they will cause the rotation 'of the rotating member in a reverse direction. A brush 3 L travels on the contacts 28 and is connected by conductor 35 to a switch contact 36. Switch contacts 33 and 36 are positioned adjacent to each other and to the contacts 19 so that the rod 21 may also simultaneously operate the switch 37 when the switches 20 are operated. The switch 37 is connected by conductor 38 with the conductor 22 thus causing the controller operating magnets 23 to be in shunt with propelling magnets 5.

It will be noted that this system does not interfere with the use of the ordinary trains whether they be steam, electric or other power and thus it may be easily installed on any existing railway. Further, the ordinary trucks on existing cars need not be changed as the magnets may be secured to the car independently of the truck.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. The combination with a road bed provided with rails, of soft-iron bars above said road bed and forming transverse connections at equal intervals between the rails; a vehicle carrying a plurality of electromagnets longitudinally spaced thereon at slightly greater intervals than those existing between said bars; a controller provided with spaced contacts arranged in pairs of series to provide one pair for each magnet and a rotary member for automatically actuating the controller, said rotary member being provided with one electro-magnet for each pair of series of said contacts.

2. The combination with a road bed, and rails mounted thereon, a plurality of softiron bars forming transverse connections for said rails, a vehicle carrying a plurality of longitudinally spaced electromagnets, the spaces between the electromagnets being slightly greater than the spaces between the armatures, and a controller provided with means to successively energize and deenergize the electromagnets, and comprising a rotary non-conducting body having a plurality of annular series of spaced contacts, each annular series being arranged in staggered relation to the others.

3. The combination with a road bed provided with rails, of transverse soft-iron bars connecting said rails at regularly spaced intervals, a vehicle carrying a plurality of longitudinally spaced electromagnets, the spaces between the electromagnets being slightly greater than the spaces between the bars and a controller provided with means to successively energize and denergize the electromagnets, said controller comprising a rotary non-conducting body having a plurality of annular series of spaced contacts, said series arranged in pairs and in staggered relation to one another and a plurality of switches each adapted to throw either member of the pairs into the electrical circuit to cause the energization and deenergization to take place at diiferent times to reverse the direction of movement of the vehicle.

4. The combination with a road bed provided with soft-iron armature bars at equally-spaced intervals, a vehicle provided with electro-magnets longitudinally spaced at slightly greater intervals than those at which the soft-iron bars are spaced, a controller provided with means for energizing each of said magnets when slightly beyond in the direction of motion the center of each space between adjacent armature-bars, and also with means for deenergizing said magnets when they arrive immediately over the center of each armature-bar, said controller being also provided with means for reversing the direction of flow of the current in the coils of said magnets whereby the operation of the device is exactly reversed to cause the vehicle to move in the opposite direction.

The foregoing specification signed at Findlay, Hancock county, Ohio, this 21st day of January, 1907.

REXFORD DEAN.

In presence of H. M. VANCE, BEECHER \V. VVALTERMIRE. 

